Hazard Waste Violator’s Jail Term--Sending Out a Message?

For more than a dozen years, Ronald (Tank) Martin got up at 5 a.m. to drive from company to company in the greater Los Angeles area collecting empty barrels the firms no longer wanted, selling them for reconditioning.

Then about 1 1/2 years ago, Martin, a bulky 250-pounder, expanded his one-man operation to include the transport of barrels containing hazardous waste. It was not a good move.

Authorities said that he transported hazardous waste without a proper license and that he did not take his barrels to a landfill licensed to handle toxic waste. Instead, they charge, he left 21 drums in vacant lots in Garden Grove and Long Beach and others in the yard of an Anaheim firm.

Last week Martin became the first person in California to receive a state prison term--two years--for violating the Hazardous Waste Control Act, after pleading guilty to four felonies.

It is a distinction he does not think he deserves.

Speaks From County Jail

“I don’t think I got a fair shake,” he said in a telephone interview from the Los Angeles County jail after his sentencing. “They want to put the small fry, like me, out of business. I get out of the joint and who is going to do business with me? I’m dead.”

As a hazardous waste violator, Martin is “small-time,” admitted Chris Kralick, the Orange County deputy district attorney who prosecuted Martin there.

Authorities also acknowledge that no one became ill because of what he did. The main chemical he handled improperly was styrene, a resin used in the manufacture of fiberglass boats--toxic, to be sure, and flammable as well, but not, prosecutors say, as dangerous as the cyanide and acid wastes that others have mishandled.

Nevertheless, they consider the case important.

Fears of Catastrophe Cited

Martin’s conviction and sentence come at a time of tougher and more expensive requirements for disposing of hazardous waste, fewer and more distant places to get rid of such waste legally, a beefed-up enforcement effort and growing fears of a chemical catastrophe.

“People are going to become extremely concerned for their safety and welfare and are going to demand that these people be dealt with firmly,” said Kralick.

William Carter, the Los Angeles deputy district attorney who prosecuted Martin for the Long Beach dumping, added: “With the closing of various dumps and the extended time of hauling, this disposing in vacant lots unfortunately may come up more frequently than before. . . . We need to send a message out to haulers that we intend to make sure the waste is properly disposed of.”

Martin, the prosecutor said, “is a man motivated to get rid of his material the easiest possible way. I am not saying he is an evil man. He appears to be sorry for what he has done. . . . A lot of this was simply motivated by greed and fraud.”

The cost of disposing of a standard 55-gallon drum of waste in Southern California rose from about $40 to more than $100 since the BKK landfill in West Covina stopped accepting hazardous waste in November, 1984, Carter said.

With the nearest legal landfills in Casmalia or Bakersfield, haulers face an increasing temptation simply to dump their waste on the side of a highway, he said.

In Martin’s case, a criminal record more than 10 years old also became an issue.

Kralick said that Martin’s record “was a factor that I took into consideration” in determining how hard to push for a prison term for the Orange County violations. Carter said Martin’s record had no bearing on the Los Angeles County case.

All told, Martin served about 14 years for convictions on charges involving bad checks, armed robbery and escape from prison, according to state prison records. The armed robbery charges later were reversed. He was released from prison in the Los Angeles area May 19, 1973.

‘I Used to Be Pretty Wild’

“I did the crimes,” Martin said. “I used to be pretty wild when I was younger but I straightened out. . . . I went to jail. . . . I have been clean since. What does my record have to do with it?”

After his release, Martin, worked by himself, first with the barrels and then with toxic waste, along with other odd jobs. It was not a glamorous life but, his wife said, he made good money until he ran afoul of the law.

“The man was a hard-working guy,” his wife, Fay, said. “He was such a good husband that he went out to do barrels (once) with a cast on his leg to get some money for Christmas.”

The case against Martin, who lives in Cypress with his wife and daughter, began April 23 when Martin apparently decided to bring his work home with him--or nearly so. The investigative file gives the following account:

Nine drums of resin waste were found in a vacant lot in Garden Grove several blocks from Martin’s home. They were traced to Martin when paper work on the barrels indicated they had come from Eliminator Boats of Anaheim and company officials identified them as part of a load Martin had picked up.

Said He Had License

Martin, who had told Eliminator officials he had a license to haul toxic wastes, had gotten their business by offering to dispose of their waste at $80 to $85 per drum, well under the $125-$130 fee others were charging.

In July, investigators running a computer search of Martin’s records uncovered discrepancies involving his manifests for waste picked up from Magnetic Metals of Westminster. With cooperation from Magnetic Metals, they set up surveillance of Martin, using the laundry room of the Motel 6 across the street from the firm. On Aug. 2, he picked up waste from Magnetic Metals and illegally unloaded it the next day at Intercem Co., a chemical firm in Anaheim, where he was arrested. Intercem officials said they had no knowledge of Martin’s plans.

The two episodes led to complaints against Martin in Orange County on nine felony counts and 20 misdemeanor charges.

The Orange County charges also led authorities to attempt to enlist Martin as an informant, according to Martin, his wife and prosecutor Carter. “They put that program to me: Either help them or they were going to jam me,” Martin said.

Unable to Aid Investigation

But Martin said he was unable to help investigators because his acquaintances stopped talking to him. “They figured I might give them up, which I can understand,” he said.

Whatever value Martin had as an informant was not enough to stave off charges in the Long Beach dumping case, which occurred four months after the second Orange County incident. Carter said he talked to Orange County investigators before charging Martin for the Long Beach dumping and was assured that additional charges would not disrupt any undercover relationship.

The Long Beach case concerns a Dec. 9 incident when witnesses told investigators they saw Martin unload 12 barrels containing styrene waste at an auto junkyard in the 1700 block of W. 9th Street about 6:15 p.m., according to Carter.

A preliminary hearing on the Orange County charges was held last Tuesday.

Martin said he thought about running away before the hearing.

“When push came to shove, I couldn’t do it. I had my cousin come to bat for me and put up his house for bail. I couldn’t let him lose his house. I knew what was going to happen when I walked into the courtroom,” he said.

Arrested on Other Counts

During the hearing, Los Angeles County authorities arrested him on the Long Beach dumping charges.

He decided not to fight anymore, he said, because he figured he would have to stay in jail anyway for about two years awaiting trial.

The result was guilty pleas on three felony counts of illegal transport and disposal for the Orange County case and a day later a guilty plea to a felony count of illegal transport for the Long Beach case. A two-year term in each jurisdiction will be served concurrently.

“I am an ex-con. . . . I am unfortunately the one they made an example out of,” he said.